CHAP, i.] from Brnnfels to Kaspar Bauhin. 31 



their matter on the principles of a true natural system, but 

 were only anxious to give some kind of order to their descrip- 

 tions of individual plants. Hence their divisions do not 

 appear under the names of classes and subdivisions ('genera 

 majora et minora,' as they would have been called at that time), 

 but they are sections of the whole work kept as symmetrical as 

 was possible. If we would discover in these works whatever 

 may really lay claim to systematic value, we must not rely on 

 the sections as they are typographically distinguished, but 

 must observe within each of them the order in which the 

 plants are given, and then it becomes apparent that within the 

 frame once established forms naturally allied are, as far as may 

 be, grouped together. For instance, we find in the second 



^ 



book of de 1'Ecluse's work first of all a long list of true Liliaceae 

 and Asphodeleae, Melanthaceae, and Irideae described in 

 unbroken succession ; then comes Calamus, and then without 

 any explanation a number of the Ranunculaceae, among which 

 the genera Ranunculus and Anemone are very well 

 distinguished ; but then follows the genus Cyclamen with 

 several species, and next a number of Orchideae, in the middle 

 of which appear Orobanche and Corydalis, followed by Helle- 

 borus niger, Veratrum album, Polygonatum, and others. So it 

 is in the other sections, though in general the species of a 

 genus stand together, and even the genera of a family are not 

 unfrequently united ; but with all this there are no proper 

 breaks, because other considerations are perpetually disturbing 

 the feeling for natural relationship. The descriptions of 

 de 1'Ecluse are generally commended, and they deserve to be 

 commended for their fulness of detail and their attention to 

 the structure of the flowers, though he, like de 1'Obel and 

 Dodoens, describes the leaves more minutely than any other 

 part of the plant. 



With DE L'OBEL 1 , as has been already observed, the feeling 



1 Mathias de 1'Obel (Lobelius), the friend and fellow-countryman of 



